Relationships: Cristina & Owen Vs. Romeo & Juliet

Shakespeare gave us - apparently - "the greatest love story ever told." Romeo and Juliet fall in love, can't be together, try and be together, fail and they die. That, supposedly, was romance and love back then. I've always been skeptical of Shakespeare. I've never found him to be the greatest author that the world has seen. Sure, I like Macbeth and find The Tempest quite good but I've always hated Romeo and Juliet and found some of his other stuff a bit bland. Romeo and Juliet, in my opinion, is a tedious, dull and vulgar piece of writing. We may quote it and we may say "is her your Romeo?", "is she your Juliet?" but, deep down, it's not a very good or interesting or challenging story. 


Romeo and Juliet ends in death or, as somebody in my GCSE English class wrote, "ends with Juliet shooting herself" - erm, I don't think so. Watching it and reading it never really challenged me or evoked any emotion. I understand that at the time it was quite a grim tale and the kind of romance everybody dreamed of having - minus the double suicide - but it wasn't very realistic.

The world, however, has given us another romance by the name of Cristina Yang and Owen Hunt - the dark and tortured couple from the TV show Grey's Anatomy. He's an ex-military soldier who suffered a massive phase of PTSD and, when meeting the love of his life, wants children. She is a career-driven woman who, after performing surgery on her best friend's husband with a gun to her head, suffered PTSD also and doesn't want children. Their love story is romantic and wonderful... but dark at the same time.

They have a forbidden relationship. They both know they're no good for each other - he is ill and she is finding it hard to put up with it. But they get together. Then he thinks he loves someone else - the memories of war and the presence of an old friend swaying him. They find their way back. She offers to exchange him for a great surgery mentor. Then she suffers PTSD and he stands beside her. Then she gets pregnant and they disagree on what to do. He eventually says he'll stand by her again and let her have the abortion. She does. Only they never get past it. Then he has an affair. And that's where they are now.

Are they toxic? Perhaps. Are they good for each other? Maybe not anymore. Are they soul-mates? Yes, they most definitely are. They understand each other, they have their own weird and wonderful relationship. But it's not a happy ending. Romeo and Juliet isn't a happy ending but it's a very extreme ending - they kill themselves to be together under very silly circumstances. Owen and Cristina want to be together, should be together, but certain obstacles pull them a part - there lies the true tragedy. Romeo and Juliet decided if they couldn't exist together they wouldn't exist at all. Owen and Cristina want to exist together but can't. There lies real tragedy. Real life. Real love.